Whitehawk parents applying for secondary places at schools miles away from home are calling on the council to stop “dragging its feet” and provide free school buses as the cost of living crisis deepens.
A year of campaigning has resulted in little change to the provision of school transport by the council, who say that loss of Government funding leaves them unable to fund free school transport for all.
But with the deadline for secondary places approaching, parents say action needs to be taken sooner rather than later.
David Bailey, Whitehawk parent and campaigner with Class Divide, which has been calling for free school transport for months now, said: “Whitehawk doesn’t have a community school and all children must travel over three miles to get to secondary school.
“None of the children in our neighbourhood have the option to walk or cycle because there are no safe routes.
“The deadline to apply for secondary school is looming and it’s deeply unfair that before parents decide what school is right for their child, they have to think first about the cost of bus travel.”
Gemma Virgo, a local parent said: “It costs me £70 a month to get my two children to school.
“With the cost-of-living crisis I know lots of families who are going without essentials in order to pay bus fares.
“Every school option is miles away from our community and so all children in this part of the city should be entitled to free travel to school.
“This means parents can put the education needs of their children first when deciding on a school place.”
Curtis James, from Class Divide said: “Brighton and Hove City Council are dragging their feet and saying that the committee system makes any progress on this issue painfully slow.
“But Whitehawk parents are making school choices and having to find bus fare now.
“Not being able to afford to travel to school is a social justice issue and one that affects many families across the city but the lack of local school in Whitehawk makes it worse for these parents.
“I think this is what happens when the people representing and working for our communities are completely out of touch, having not lived in the places they are meant to support, they have no lived experience.
“If they did there would be urgency on this matter, but clearly no-one at the council can really understand how serious this situation is for families in Whitehawk.”
Councillors on the Environment, Transport and Sustainability committee voted to produce a report on school transport and its impact on education for pupils in East Brighton in April 2022, but the report has not yet been published.
Class Divide says that an immediate change to the transport policy is needed, for free school transport for all children in the area as well as a more direct route from Whitehawk to Brighton Aldridge Community Academy.
Class Divide spokesperson Dr Carlie Goldsmith said: “We are very disappointed at the lack of progress Brighton and Hove City Council has made on this issue.
“Only 37 percent of young people from Whitehawk, Manor Farm and Bristol Estate are equipped with basic grades at GCSE English and Maths in 2019, leaving school at a serious disadvantage to the citywide average of 69 percent that year.
“We know that covid will have widened this gap further.
“The current school travel policy is complicated but with a few exceptions only children who are attending Longhill School can access a free and direct school bus.
“All other children must pay, face long waits for buses after attending after school clubs, and have to get up very early to take long and complicated journeys to school.”
Headteachers are showing concern that the early mornings and long journeys can have a negative health and learning impact.
Thomas McMorrin headteacher at City Academy Whitehawk said: ‘I think it is very very challenging for children from Whitehawk, as young people need to make such tricky journeys to get to secondary school.
“That’s a firmly held view of mine that it’s much too soon to be making such a tricky journey that requires such resilience and independence at that stage of their learning career.
“I wonder if that sets them up to be successful as learners at nine o’clock in the morning.”
A council spokesperson said: “We are sympathetic to the request for free transport.
“We appreciate that with the rising costs of living, travel costs are very much on the minds of families and can be a strain on the family budget.
“We also know that this is important to young people themselves. Brighton and Hove Youth Council is currently planning a campaign on transport and has highlighted the cost.
“Sadly, the council itself cannot afford to provide free transport at this time.
“Over the last 12 years, we have lost at least £100 million in Government funding but our costs have continued to rise, making paying for essential services very difficult.
“However, we have recently been given around £28m in funding from Government to improve our bus services. This is to be spent across three years and comes with no promise of future funding.
“This is often how Government funding works – they will provide one-off funding for projects to councils, but do not give councils recurring funding.
“We have asked the Government whether we can spend our Bus Service Improvement funding towards reducing the cost of travel for young people.
“We are currently waiting for confirmation from them on how we can spend our funding.
“If the Government agrees, then it is possible that accompanied young people will be able to travel for free and young people will be able to travel for less than a pound off-peak.
“As we do not run bus services, this also requires us to work closely with bus service operators.
“Some young people in the city already benefit from free transport, if they meet Government requirements.
“Young people who live in Whitehawk and go to their catchment school of Longhill are eligible for free transport, because of the distance to their catchment school. This is set out in the government rules.
“As a council we are committed to supporting travel by more sustainable means.
“We would like to introduce free transport for all young people if sustainable funding was provided by central Government to do so.”
The council say that loss of Government funding leaves them unable to fund free school transport for all.
WHAT A GREAT BIG LIE
Dated 4th April 2022 from BHCC’s own website.
Bus travel in Brighton & Hove will be given a major boost following the announcement of a multi-million pound government funding award.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has provisionally awarded the city £27.9m to implement our Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP).
Over to you for any comments on loss of government funding for transport.
This is so sad, Mart. I am pretty old now, but back in the day (not in Brighton) my primary and junior schools were in the same road as I lived – walk home quickly for lunch etc. All the kids at the school were very local and walked in. Similarly, my secondary school was very nearby and I could walk it or have a brief trip on the bike. B&H Council is all excuses and blaming the Government, whereas they did/do have the funding to fix this but choose not to. Sack a lot of useless council officers, use Govt. funding responsibly and get the kids to school in a safe and timely manner is what’s required. Whitehawk children are often the most deprived in the city and yet they’re being disadvantaged even further by the council.
You can read how the money’s been spent on the council website. https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/busserviceimprovementplan#tab–4-current-situation If the 27 million they’ve spent already only brings tickets down to the current prices, how much would it cost to bring that cost down to zero?
Some Guy
All very interesting but doesn’t state where the 27m has been spent.
Most of what is in there is already funded under normal operational requirements. Things like ticketing is done by bus operators and inter company agreements.
That’s a fair point: there’s not a quantitative breakdown so far. However, here’s a relevant point. According to the plan, there were 45 million bus journeys in 2019/20. If they threw the entire 27 million at the fares, that would only be a reduction of 60p per journey, and it would run out after a year. Not really the kind of difference that would make a difference.
Some Guy
45 million bus journeys is a little mis-leading, being passengers buy day, weekly, monthly or annual tickets, therefore they can jump on and off buses all day but still recorded as single journeys each time they get on a bus. But I do get your point.
No money to help out deprived families who are suffering over the cost of living crisis. But plenty of money to waste on the Hanover LTN, unused cycle lanes and more CPZs. Somebody in the Transport Dept needs to get their priorities sorted
Ah but CPZs make the council lots of money..
LTNs increase traffic and pollution for those not in it. Now proven in London (not that it really needed proving).
Like many others I get so bored of hearing about the change to government funding of councils over 12 years ago. This was the same for all councils, not just for Brighton.
In the meantime Brighton has become one of the most heavily taxed cities in terms of council tax, with some of the poorest services. And let’s not forget the cash cow that is the residents parking permit scheme.
At some point this council has to take responsibility. I have said it before and I will say it again – will we still be hearing the same sob story in 30 years ? (two school generations!)
You are elected to do a job. Find a way. If you cannot, then resign and let people who have better ideas have a go. Please remember that all councilors have been re-elected after this £100M cut, so you knew what you were dealing with.
Most importantly a whole generation of young people from a nice community are missing out on opportunity. One could be forgiven for thinking that it suits the politics of the incumbents to keep the socioeconomic status quo.
And we still wait to hear (don’t hold your breath) how this incompetent council has managed to acquire a £13m overspend on staff who don’t seem to have been in their offices or doing anything useful for a very long time. I do repeat, however, that apart from the lack of positive action by limp Green/Lab councillors, who are allegedly in charge but are not by a long chalk, someone, anyone, needs to ask serious questions (and demand very urgent answers) about what the executive are up to and where the money has gone and exactly what we taxpayers are getting for the hideous amount of tax. There seems to be no accountability to anyone at all by the executive and that has to change – pronto!!
The council have no funds to help get kids to school, but we don’t have to worry about that, the kids who can’t get to school can perhaps spend their time at the parks that our council has put £3m into and enjoy the 1.3m of funding that’s been put into the Kingsway project.
Wonder how much of our money is going into the Hanover fiasco.
How much was spent on bike sheds.
Don’t get me wrong, these are all good projects but hardly a priority with the current costs of living.